SAD: After 16 Unexplained Miscarriages In 6 Years, Mum Narrates How She Lost ‘Miracle baby’ To Meningitis In Just 6 Hours

After overcoming 16 miscarriages to give birth to her ‘miracle daughter’, a 32-year-old mum, Lizzie has been left heart broken following the loss of her 15-months-old six hours after she contracted meningitis.

Narrating how meningitis killed her ‘perfectly healthy’ daughter, Fleur-Rose Allen, Lizzie said she wants other parents to know how quickly meningitis can become deadly.

Fleur died this year, on the 4th of April just days after she started walking for the first time.

The Sun UK learnt that Fleur, who was born on New Year’s Eve 2014, two-and-a-half months premature following a difficult pregnancy woke with a slight temperature and crying.

Lizzie thought she had a bug and gave her water and Calpol however, her condition quickly deteriorated and hours later after suffering four cardiac arrests, she was declared dead.

”Fleur-Rose was so healthy. She was toddling and laughing the day before she died,” she recalled.

At 1pm on the day we lost her, she was sat on her daddy Matt’s knee, grinning away. Around lunchtime she began retching, but her oxygen levels were still 100 per cent.

She later had an X-ray on her chest, which was clear, but she still was not eating. I remember saying at teatime, ‘Shall we try her with some food. She had one mouthful of mashed potato.”

It was at this point that Lizzie noticed a slight red blotch on Fleur’s neck, which spread down it as she watched.

”I just shouted to Matt, ‘Go and get a nurse.’ But moments later it had gone and there were only tiny pinprick marks.”

At 5.30pm, Fleur was admitted to a side room.

”She was pale, but conscious and crying. They were trying to get a water sample from her. They said they were going to give her an antibiotic, which would treat meningitis.”

It was the first time she had heard mention of meningitis. ”I was terrified,” she said.

Then, at 6pm, Fleur was moved to the resuscitation unit and a specialist team from Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, was called in.

”She deteriorated before our eyes,” Lizzie continued, recalling how her daughter suffered four cardiac arrests. The rash returned, creeping from her feet to her head and at 11.04 pm there was nothing more they could do.

My darling daughter died.”

It was subsequently discovered that Fleur had been suffering from streptococcal meningitis, a bacterial strain of the illness.

To promote greater awareness of the symptoms of meningitis in kids, Lizzie said:

”People always look for the rash, but her rash didn’t develop until later. At lunchtime she was cheerful, but actually she was being killed from the inside out.

She was too young to articulate how she felt. She couldn’t say, ‘Mummy my eyes hurt; Mummy I have a bad tummy’. I think every child who is admitted to hospital with similar symptoms should automatically have a meningitis check.

A child’s life isn’t a lottery.

I want people to remember her. I had 16 unexplained miscarriages in six years before she was born.”

She continues:

“My pregnancy wasn’t easy. They feared she was disabled because the scan indicated fluid round her neck.

She arrived early and weighed just 4lbs, but she was a miracle. Walking out of the hospital with her in my arms, I was finally a mother.

And then she was gone. It was heartbreaking.”

Photo credit: Pa Real Life